Renee Remsberg

Promoting an Anti-Semitic Campaign, SJP and BDS  

On September 28, 2022, Remsberg and the other members of The Wellesley News editorial board published a front-page editorial titled: “The Wellesley News Calls for the Liberation of Palestine.”  The editorial endorsed Wellesley’s SJP chapter (WSJP) and the BDS movement, praising WSJP’s efforts to “push Wellesley’s administration to acknowledge the College’s role in settler-colonialism and divest from Israel.” The WSJP logo was the lead photo and the editorial also endorsed the Mapping Project, calling it a “vital service.”

On June 3, 2022, the activist group BDS Boston released the Mapping Project, a campaign with an interactive map targeting Jewish and pro-Israel institutions in Massachusetts, including schools, synagogues and businesses. Among the institutions it targeted were Wellesley College and the Wellesley, MA, police department. 

The campaign’s website said it would reveal “local institutions responsible for the colonization of Palestine or other harms such as policing, US imperialism, and displacement…so we can dismantle them.” The project was denounced by public officials as anti-Semitic and was condemned for targeting Jewish institutions.

The Wellesley News editorial board wrote: “We believe that the Mapping Project is providing a vital service. Collecting data about these institutions, tracing their financial and political activity and publicizing this information is incredibly important.”

The Mapping Project targeted Wellesley College and the Wellesley Police Department for being complicit in the “harm” of Zionism, which it called “a form of white supremacy.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

The Mapping Project also condemned Wellesley for multiple things, including that the college “works with Birthright Israel to encourage students to attend free propaganda trips to Israel.”

Birthright Israel is a heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults from across the world.

In its editorial, The Wellesley News editorial board wrote: “The Wellesley Investment Office should immediately withdraw any investments in entities based in Israel or those that support the apartheid regime.” The editorial also demanded that Wellesley’s administration “should cease promoting Birthright Israel.”

On October 7, 2022, Wellesley president Dr. Paula A. Johnson authored an email to the Wellesley alumnae community with the subject line: “Condemning Antisemitism.” The email denounced the Mapping Project and distanced Wellesley’s administration from The Wellesley News and its editorial.

Johnson wrote: “Claiming that Jewish people and organizations are responsible for a host of societal harms and calling for action against them is, by definition, anti-Semitism.” She also wrote that she was concerned that the project posed “a significant threat to the physical security of the Jewish community of Greater Boston, including neighbors and partners of the College.”

As of October 7, 2022, the names and photos of The Wellesley News editorial board were still available on the newspaper’s website. However, by October 9, 2022, the entire editorial board page was removed from the website.

On October 10, 2022, WSJP posted a statement on Instagram in support of The Wellesley News editorial board. WSJP said: “As long as the illegitimate occupying state of ‘Israel’ exists, Palestinians and all other colonized nations and peoples have the inalienable right to resist their oppressor and aggressor by any means necessary.”

On October 12, 2022, The Wellesley News editorial board released a statement reaffirming its support for WSJP, BDS, and “the liberation of Palestine.” The statement retracted its support for the Mapping Project, writing: “We intended to use the Mapping Project only as a source of information about Wellesley College and its affiliated institutions.”

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true. 

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”  

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.

Social Media and Weblinks

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Wellesley News: https://thewellesleynews.com/byline/renee-remsberg 

Website: https://renee-remsberg.com

Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/renee-remsberg/articles